An opening day 6-0 shutout of the Bellingham Blazers followed by a 10-3 destruction of Empire Junior Hockey League champ New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs have clinched the +Twin Cities Northern Lights a berth into the semifinals on Sunday. Saturday night will see the final game of pool play as the Northern Lights will face NA3HL champ North Iowa Outlaws.
The tournament opened for Twin Cities on Thursday face the NorPac playoff champion Bellingham Blazers. Building a 2-0 lead in the opening period on goals by Zack Hayes and Dylan Blankenship, the second period was a different story. For 16 minutes the score remained the same. Then the goals explosion happened.
At 15:59 Shane Gachne scored. Then 15 seconds later, hometown player Zach Johnson scored. Hayes added his second of the game at 16:50. Just 38 seconds after, Jonas Fredriksson netted his first of the tourney and the Northern Lights led 6-0! In a span of just 1 minute, 29 seconds Twin Cities had ended any hope of a Blazers comeback.
Twin Cities outshot Bellingham 44-12. Goaltender Isaak Tjaden earned the shutout.
Northern Lights-Blazers gamesheet: http://goo.gl/R61vH
Friday night found the Northern Lights facing New Hampshire, a 5-2 loser to North Iowa on opening day. Falling behind early, Twin Cities answered each of the Monarchs first two. From there the Lights went on to score 7-unanswered goals and led 9-2 at the second intermission.
Goal scorers for Twin Cities were Johnson, Teague (2), Andrew Scofield (2), John Regnart, Jace Childs, Tyler DuHadaway, Nick Kunes, and Matt Pietrzykowski.
Northern Lights-Monarchs gamesheet: http://goo.gl/T3piU
Saturday is the final round of pool play. Twin Cities (2-0) will face North Iowa Outlaws (2-0). The winner will be the top seed from the American Division in the semifinal round.
The tournament opened for Twin Cities on Thursday face the NorPac playoff champion Bellingham Blazers. Building a 2-0 lead in the opening period on goals by Zack Hayes and Dylan Blankenship, the second period was a different story. For 16 minutes the score remained the same. Then the goals explosion happened.
At 15:59 Shane Gachne scored. Then 15 seconds later, hometown player Zach Johnson scored. Hayes added his second of the game at 16:50. Just 38 seconds after, Jonas Fredriksson netted his first of the tourney and the Northern Lights led 6-0! In a span of just 1 minute, 29 seconds Twin Cities had ended any hope of a Blazers comeback.
Twin Cities outshot Bellingham 44-12. Goaltender Isaak Tjaden earned the shutout.
Northern Lights-Blazers gamesheet: http://goo.gl/R61vH
Friday night found the Northern Lights facing New Hampshire, a 5-2 loser to North Iowa on opening day. Falling behind early, Twin Cities answered each of the Monarchs first two. From there the Lights went on to score 7-unanswered goals and led 9-2 at the second intermission.
Goal scorers for Twin Cities were Johnson, Teague (2), Andrew Scofield (2), John Regnart, Jace Childs, Tyler DuHadaway, Nick Kunes, and Matt Pietrzykowski.
Northern Lights-Monarchs gamesheet: http://goo.gl/T3piU
Saturday is the final round of pool play. Twin Cities (2-0) will face North Iowa Outlaws (2-0). The winner will be the top seed from the American Division in the semifinal round.
